Do you smell spirits?

That was the exact question posed to me by my colleague when we were in the loo. Actually when I stepped into the restroom, a very strong smell (to me) of cleaning agent. I was going on my business when that question was posed. The first thing that came to my mind was, WTF??? Do you even know what month it is now??? @_@||| What kind of a question was that??? Can't he just use a normal word???

What the dictionary says :

1) the principle of conscious life; the vital principle in humans, animating the body or mediating between body and soul.
2) any distilled alcoholic liquor such as brandy, rum, whisky, or gin
3) an aqueous solution of ethanol, esp one obtained by distillation

Those were the different meanings as per their order. The list which tries to describe the supernatural being was about half of the whole page. As you can see, I was not the only one who thought that what he meant would most likely be "those" things.

But since I have already picked up the pungent smell, I knew he meant the unpleasant odour that we have to endure while we try to finish up our business to get out of there.

Would you be any different if posed with the same question?